Be the CEO of Your Life and Business Podcast

Last Thursday I had a real estate closing at my old office — and I ended up sitting in a chair I sat in for eleven years, at the firm I left in 2019.

I hadn't been in that chair since December of that year. My kids were born during those years. So were the nanny disasters, the 4 a.m. workouts, and the stretch I can only describe as drowning with a career and three little kids. Sitting there again, all I wanted was five minutes with the woman who used to sit there.

That, plus a conversation with Kim on our Legacy League mastermind call, put the same topic in front of me twice in one week. And August — the deep breath before September's tidal wave — is exactly the right time for it.

So I'll say it plainly: work-life balance is a lie. The 50/50 split — fully present at home, fully focused at work, everything humming — is a fictitious ideal. Chasing it made me feel like I was failing at everything, at a time when I was actually doing the work and doing it well.

What's real is seasons. Some pull you toward home: the winter everyone is sick, the childcare that collapses overnight, the spring calendar that swallows you whole. Some pull you toward work: a federal trial in Manhattan, a jury trial in February, an acquisition that turns your firm upside down. I've lived all of them. Both kinds are normal. Neither one is failure.

In this episode I share the childcare crisis that upended our entire routine, the trip to Aruba my husband surprised me with for my 40th that I couldn't fully enjoy because I was worried about the office, and exactly what I'd tell my younger self — the one taking care of her partner, her clients, her kids, her house and her husband, and nobody else.

In this episode:

• Why the 50/50 model sets working moms up to feel like they're failing
• The Grant Cardone line that changed how I think about all of it: "There's no work life and home life. It's just life."
• Real examples of home-heavy and work-heavy seasons across nearly two decades of practice
• The one thing I dropped for years that can't get dropped in any season
• How to walk into September without an impossible standard

If this one hits home, share it with a working mom who's holding herself to a standard nobody can meet.

Check out my favorite supplements and workouts that keep me on track all year long:

https://linktr.ee/lauracatina

In this episode, I’m talking about “separation season” — that stretch of late summer when you can slow down just enough to get intentional, sharpen your goals, and put yourself ahead before fall begins. I share how I’m using this time to focus on planning, improving my business systems, and staying consistent with personal goals instead of letting August slip by.

A big part of that strategy is AI. I walk through the ways I’m using tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and NotebookLM to support both my professional and personal life — from organizing work, comparing documents, and tracking email to building meal plans, adjusting macros, and staying on top of fitness goals. I also explain how AI has become a true companion in my workflow, not a replacement, and how it can help you stay accountable, efficient, and focused.

If you’re looking for a way to make the most of the rest of summer and head into fall with more clarity and momentum, this episode is for you.

Check out the supplements and workouts that keep me on track all year long here:

https://linktr.ee/lauracatina

During the week after I told you about walking out of the office at four o'clock, I received a late night text from a client. And for about four seconds, I almost responded and let the whole “I need to rest” conversation from last week evaporate.

That's what this episode is about.

Last week we talked about giving yourself permission to rest. This week I want to talk about what allows you to rest: permission doesn't hold without a boundary behind it. You can decide, in your journal, in your car, in your own head, that rest matters. But the first time someone calls at 7 a.m., or your kid needs a ride during your one quiet hour, or a client emails “just circling back” for the third time on a Saturday — that decision gets tested. And if there's no boundary attached to it, it loses.

In this episode, I'm walking through why boundaries feel like conflict for so many of us, what a boundary actually sounds like when you say it out loud, and how to hold it the first time someone pushes back — because someone always pushes back.

A boundary is not a wall. It's the thing that makes the rest you fought for last week actually stick.

In this episode:

• Why the rest from Episode 270 doesn't survive contact with your calendar without this next step

• The real reason boundaries feel like conflict when you've built your identity on being the one who handles it

• How to set a boundary in one sentence — without a paragraph of justification attached

• The exact language I use with clients, my team, and my own kids

• What to do in the first ten seconds after someone pushes back — because they will

Check out my favorite supplements and workouts that help keep me on track all year round here:

https://linktr.ee/lauracatina

A few weeks ago, I walked out of my office the day before the Fourth of July weekend and told my team to shut it down at four o’clock. And I felt guilty about it. Guilty. For leaving early on a holiday weekend after one of the most stressful stretches I’ve had in years.

Check out the supplements and workouts that keep me on track through every season here:

You’ve heard me talk about being the CEO of your life and your business. But this week, I want to add a third title to that list: CEO of your health.

Check out my favorite supplements and workouts that keep me on track here:

https://linktr.ee/lauracatina

If you’ve been telling yourself you’ll get back to working out once things slow down — this episode is for you.

I started working out at 16. I was a gym person for years — the kind who would work a 10-hour day and head straight to the gym for two hours. Then I had kids. Then I couldn’t run anymore. Then perimenopause hit and nothing I was doing was working. Every single one of those transitions felt like failure in the moment. None of them were.

In this episode, I’m sharing the full story of my fitness journey — from gym obsession to at-home workouts to 21 Day Fix to running two half marathons to Pilates, strength training, and now Progressive Overload. More importantly, I’m talking about the mindset shift that made all of it possible: letting go of what fitness “has to” look like and meeting yourself where you actually are.

If you’re a working mom trying to figure out how to fit movement into your life, this one is for you. You don’t have to go to the gym. You just have to start.

In this episode:

• Why at-home workouts were a game-changer — and why I resisted them for so long

• How 21 Day Fix changed my life after having three kids under three

• What happened to my fitness routine when perimenopause hit — and how I adapted

• Why letting go of what used to work is not failure — it’s evolution

• How to find even 20–30 minutes in your day and make it count

Check out my favorite supplements and workouts here:

https://linktr.ee/lauracatina

There’s a particular kind of discomfort that high-achieving women know well — the feeling that you’ve outgrown who you’ve been, but you haven’t quite stepped into who you’re becoming. You’re not burned out exactly. You’re not failing. But something feels off, like you’re wearing a version of yourself that no longer quite fits.

In this episode, we’re going deep on two of the big conversations in personal development right now: the identity shifts that happen at major career and life transitions, and the emotional fitness work required to move through them without burning out or shutting down.

We are six months into 2026 — and if you set goals in January, now is exactly the right time to look at them honestly.

In this episode, I’m walking you through my own mid-year review, both personally and professionally. I share how my fitness focus shifted from low-impact work to strength training, why I revised my firm’s income goal for this year, and why I stopped stressing about the timeline for stepping out of the day-to-day legal work. None of it is failure. All of it is recalibration.

I also talk about how I use AI as a planning tool to work through my numbers, visualize my goals, and build a realistic path forward — and why you should be doing the same.

If you’ve been holding yourself to goals that no longer fit your life, this episode is your permission slip to revise them. Your goals should evolve with you. Here’s how to make sure they do.

In this episode:

• How to structure a meaningful six-month review

• Why changing your goals is a sign of growth, not failure

• How I’m shifting my personal health focus heading into Q3

• What I’m rebuilding inside my firm and why I adjusted my income goal

• How to use AI as a goal-planning and financial clarity tool

Summer break is here. The kids are home. And you're supposed to suddenly become a full-time mom while working, running a business, managing a team, and keeping it all together. Except that's impossible.

In this episode, I talk about the mindset shift you actually need: You're not choosing between being a present mother and being a CEO. You're learning to be both—but not at full capacity for either one.

I cover the guilt that shows up when your kids are home and you're working, the boundary-setting that actually works, and the reframe that changes everything: your kids don't need you to disappear. They need you to be honest about what's possible this summer.

If you're dreading summer because you don't know how to balance presence and productivity, this episode will reset your expectations—and your peace.

Check out my favorite supplements and workouts that keep me on track all year long here:

https://linktr.ee/lauracatina

After months of chaos and compromise, spring sports season is winding down—and it's time to take stock. In this episode, I'm sharing exactly what I'm changing as I come out of one of the most stressful seasons I've had in years.

We talk about the modifications I'm making: protecting my sleep, shifting from outsourcing meals to cooking as a family again, adjusting my workout routine to include more strength training, and learning to listen to my body instead of pushing through.

But here's the bigger lesson: these changes aren't about perfection or going back to some ideal routine. They're about being intentional with whatever season you're in—and having the grace to adjust when the season changes.

If you're a high-achiever running on empty, waiting for permission to modify, recalibrate, and actually recover—this episode is for you.

Check out my favorite workouts and supplements here:

https://linktr.ee/lauracatina